Diehard Nexus/Pixel user goes 12 Pro Max

Looking at that screenshot of the iPhone 13, it looks really cool.

But that's not the way it's truly seen everyday, turn it on and it's pew, pew, pew, Windows 95 theme. They need to totally revamp iOS already.
 
Obviously I still have my 12 Pro max for now, and using it like a tablet in the house. One thing I will admit this phone excels in, is actually in the apps experience, using Reddit, or Twitter, or Discord, with the nice Black AMOLED setting, the apps look beautiful, and have more settings options and feel a bit more polished than the same apps on Android.

And Safari, surfing thew web, and reading stuff online, really looks great on this big high quality screen.

I will give Apple credit on that, this phone is great for media and app consumption
 
Screen shots of my iPhone 12 Pro max and Pixel 5a;
 

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I put my SIM back in the iPhone 12 PM yesterday and today. But I've pretty much had enough already of iOS 15. It's just too dated and the UI navigation sucks. Plus as much as I love the big beautiful 6.7" display on the 12 Pro Max, this phone with a case is a brick to hold, just a huge heavy phone. And the 13 Pro Max will be 240grams

Playing with this Pixel 5a with it's budget hardware still feels easier to use the UI and get around the OS better. Yeah the 5a isn't perfect by no means, nope. It's a slight bit laggy or hiccups just here and there rarely

Can't imagine what a Pixel 6 or 6 Pro will feel like? Much better hardware specs than this 5a, those new phones will feel warp speed fast and buttery smooth, having all the bells and whistles.

And the 12 Pro Max design actually kind of sucks in regards to the squared sharp edge design. It's very uncomfortable to hold with no case. The flat sharp edges is not good, the 11 Pro Max with the rounded shape is vastly superior and way more comfortable to hold. Seriously the iPhone 12 and now iPhone 13 suck with this industrial design. It may look cool just laying on the table, but actually using it blows. I have the Pixel 4 XL and Pixel 5a, and both with the rounded frame feel so good in the hand, actually nice feel to hold.

And sorry but the notch still sucks. The 5a with a tiny hole in the upper left corner isn't even noticeable, but the flat straight across the top is, and it looks the best with no notch

Anyways. Pixel 6 Pro all day long and twice on Sunday over the iPhone 13 Pro Max.
 
You're welcome, I'm happy create this thread and give my honest thoughts from more a Nexus / Pixel guy.

So I have my SIM card in the 12 Pro Max again last few days. And I do still like this phone for a few specific reasons;

- Safari. Surfing the web on this web browser and this phone looks so nice. The adjustment to don't size is easy and everything looks so clear and clean. Zero ads ever show up. I like Safari way more than Chrome or Brave on Android.

- Apps. Certain apps just look and perform better and have more option settings on iOS. Twitter. Reddit. Discord. YouTube. Telegram.

- I love this huge display, it's beautiful. But on the flip side I have to say my Pixel 5a gets brighter outdoors and has deeper blacks and more vibrant colors than this iPhone 12 Pro Max. I hope the 13 Pro is brighter and has more inky blacks?

- Again the build quality, this 12 Pro Max feels so solid and we'll crafted.

- But some bad. I think the camera sucks on this 12 PM compared to both my Pixel 4 XL and 5a. Night shots are way too blurry. Portrait shots suck. Overall this iPhone camera shoots like some crappy OnePlus camera, I'm not a fan.

- iOS UI navigation vs. Stock Android UI and gesture navigation. No comparison Android wins by a mile.

- No AoD ( Always on Display ) I'm upset Apple isn't giving this great feature to the iPhone any time soon. Total bummer. And no I won't wear an Apple Watch

- Overall I much prefer stock Android over iOS.

- But I don't hate this iPhone like I thought I would. I keep coming back to it with my SIM card.
 
Posted this reply in another thread, what's your opinion?

As much of a stock Android nerd I am, and typically diss the iPhone and not an iOS fan, I will admit I keep putting my SIM back in my 12 Pro Max for some reason. I do like this large beautiful screen,m and the dark theme being typically Black AMOLED apps look great on it. Using Safari for web surfing is a beautiful experience, and easy to read and see sites clearly. And the dark mode in apps like Twitter, Reddit, Telegram look amazing, and pretty much hide the notch, making it look like the screen goes off to the edge.


I'm now more torn than ever, I LOVE the Pixel phones, and a big stock Android fan, but for some reason the 12 Pro Max has me going back and forth, and I'd imagine the 13 Pro Max with the 120hz display and brighter screen would be even nicer. Because at the end of the day, you stare at the phone itself, and the smartphone with the best screen and edge to edge display is great, and having a smooth lag free experience is a big deal to me.


Not sure what to do? Upgrade my 12 Pro Max to the 13 Pro Max? Or wait for the Pixel 6 Pro? But I do have two Pixel's now, the 4 XL and 5a, and yes of course the 6 Pro will blow both those out of the water, but then I also kinda like my 12 Pro Max a lot too, and a 13 Pro Max would be even smoother with the new display tech.
 
I have a 12PM and I think I’m going to wait. I typically keep my phone for 4yrs, and found the 13PM a phone I could definitely keep for 4 yrs, but can’t justify a year on year upgrade. The camera and 120hz screen with 1TB is definitely something I’d run.

However, I suspect the iPhone 14PM will have significant upgrades and features. As much as I like Android, the software support time has disappointed me in the phones I’ve had & used. I mean, I have a 6s plus that is still running and able as my back up emergency device. Longevity is a priority for me at least.

But the 12PM has some things that irritate me. Specifically the minimum focus distance on the wide camera. It’s too far from the subject compared to my old 6s plus. The macro ability of the new devices is tempting, but I’ll hold it for a year and see. A rumor is like to see come to fruition is a touchID system and a larger mega pixel sensor whilst keeping the larger pixel micron sizes. Astrophotography with these phones is nuts.
 
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Put my SIM in my old Pixel 4 XL today, mainly because was out with my family and would be taking photos at Cross Country Meet and going Apple picking.

Wow this Pixel takes absolutely amazing Portrait photos. Super nice pics.

My iPhone 12 Pro Max can't even come close. Actually I find my 12 PM takes pretty crappy pics overall, shockingly poor camera. Nighttime photos blow on my iPhone.

I'd rate the camera on my Pixel 4 XL an A. And give my iPhone 12 Pro Max a grade of D. I'm just talking camera's.
 
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iPhone 13 Pro versus Pixel 5 camera comparison​



I have 3 phones currently, the iPhone 12 Pro Max, Pixel 5a, and Pixel 4 XL, and for still shots and portrait mode, it's not even a contest, both Pixel phones destroy my 12 PM. For some reason my iPhone 12 Pro Max always shoots washed out and too bright pics, where both Pixel's are very detailed and have great color. I thought I had a wrong setting or a broken camera or something on my iPhone, always wondering why my photos looked so crappy, where that never happens on any Pixel phone I've had. I actually find my 12 Pro Max camera to be pretty bad, like some 5 yr old OnePlus garbage camera.

Now videos is a whole different story, the 12 PM wins in that category, no contest, but whatever, I never shoot videos. I only use my camera for still portrait shots. And the Pixel owns the iPhone.
Watching the video comparison here, even the 13 Pro Max looks to take rather poor photos, way too washed out with light bleed.
 

iPhone 13 Pro versus Pixel 5 camera comparison​



I have 3 phones currently, the iPhone 12 Pro Max, Pixel 5a, and Pixel 4 XL, and for still shots and portrait mode, it's not even a contest, both Pixel phones destroy my 12 PM. For some reason my iPhone 12 Pro Max always shoots washed out and too bright pics, where both Pixel's are very detailed and have great color. I thought I had a wrong setting or a broken camera or something on my iPhone, always wondering why my photos looked so crappy, where that never happens on any Pixel phone I've had. I actually find my 12 Pro Max camera to be pretty bad, like some 5 yr old OnePlus garbage camera.

Now videos is a whole different story, the 12 PM wins in that category, no contest, but whatever, I never shoot videos. I only use my camera for still portrait shots. And the Pixel owns the iPhone.
Watching the video comparison here, even the 13 Pro Max looks to take rather poor photos, way too washed out with light bleed.

That might be down to the color science of Apple. The shots always seem bland, but supposedly “accurate”….whatever that means in todays AI manipulated images lol. It’d be interesting to see the new photograph “styles” which seems like glorified filters applied to the image algorithm and bake it in to the image. Kind of like my SLR features. Emulating other phone color profiles? I’ll have to see in store to make a comparison to my s8 plus I have around. That was a sexy phone.
 
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One gripe I have with the iPhone is the terrible voice to text transcribing compared to my Google Pixel’s. And keyboard not auto spelling correctly.

The iPhone is pure garbage when tapping the mic button on the keyboard to use your voice to text a message. It screws it up all the time every time. Where all my Pixel’s are almost perfect in doing voice to text.

Is it because the Gboard downloads the language to the phone itself and does it instantly? Where the iPhone needs to use the WiFi or network to spell check? It’s night and day better on the Pixel.

I would say the iPhone is 60% to 70% accurate with voice to text. And the Google Pixel 95%.
 
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Another one is the gesture navigation UI between both systems.

I find the Pixel gesture navigation to just be clearly and comfortably better to use than the iPhone navigation.

Specifically being able to swipe back using the right side. Meaning on the far right side of the screen, just swipe your finger or thumb towards the left and you go back. But the iPhone doesn’t allow that or do that function. Which to me makes the phone much more one-handed friendly. And makes the iPhone a little frustrating to use.

And keeping with the gesture swiping. Swiping down anywhere on the home screen to bring down the notification screen or pull down texts to do a quick reply. I LOVE this gesture on Android, been using it for years. But on the iPhone when you swipe down some strange search thing comes up. Seems like an old relic feature from ten years ago to swipe down and pull up a weird search menu thing. That just feels so wrong and out of place. I much prefer swiping down to pull the text conversation down to make a fast reply one-handed.

And lastly notifications in general are still way behind on the iPhone. I noticed when my daughter text me yesterday, she sent three texts before I replied, but on the Lock Screen I saw three separate text bubbles from her, not just one grouped up together.

As far as notifications are handled I find Android does it way better.
 
But the thing is, I do like this iPhone 12 Pro Max. The build quality is super high end. The beautiful display great. The smoothness of the UI is very fluid. The battery life really good. It’s an excellent smartphone no doubt.

But maybe it’s just me with iOS and so used to the Nexus / Pixel UI smartphone. I’m just so comfortable running stock Android and iOS feels outdated or frustrating to use at times.

Sorry I’m just rambling now 😀
 
But the thing is, I do like this iPhone 12 Pro Max. The build quality is super high end. The beautiful display great. The smoothness of the UI is very fluid. The battery life really good. It’s an excellent smartphone no doubt.

But maybe it’s just me with iOS and so used to the Nexus / Pixel UI smartphone. I’m just so comfortable running stock Android and iOS feels outdated or frustrating to use at times.

Sorry I’m just rambling now 😀
I learn alot from your evaluations Zorachus.
 
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Another one is the gesture navigation UI between both systems.

I find the Pixel gesture navigation to just be clearly and comfortably better to use than the iPhone navigation.

Specifically being able to swipe back using the right side. Meaning on the far right side of the screen, just swipe your finger or thumb towards the left and you go back. But the iPhone doesn’t allow that or do that function. Which to me makes the phone much more one-handed friendly. And makes the iPhone a little frustrating to use.

And keeping with the gesture swiping. Swiping down anywhere on the home screen to bring down the notification screen or pull down texts to do a quick reply. I LOVE this gesture on Android, been using it for years. But on the iPhone when you swipe down some strange search thing comes up. Seems like an old relic feature from ten years ago to swipe down and pull up a weird search menu thing. That just feels so wrong and out of place. I much prefer swiping down to pull the text conversation down to make a fast reply one-handed.

And lastly notifications in general are still way behind on the iPhone. I noticed when my daughter text me yesterday, she sent three texts before I replied, but on the Lock Screen I saw three separate text bubbles from her, not just one grouped up together.

As far as notifications are handled I find Android does it way better.
I actually prefer the pull-down-to-search approach. It makes it relatively easy to find that app I only occasionally use, and of course it's great for finding a contact or similar media.
 
I know you mentioned battery life being a factor for things, I get 2 days easy on a charge On my 13 pro max. When the excitement of a new phone wears off and I start using it normally, ill probably be getting 3.
 
Just picked up an 13 pro max yesterday and am finding it a little underwhelming. I’m coming from a 5 year old V20, so was expecting a drastic difference. Yeah the hardware is 100x better, but it just seems to be more difficult to do basic things with. I haven’t even bothered to swap my SIM card yet.

The lack of a back button is probably my biggest gripe. I didn’t realize how much I relied on it. I know I can swipe right on iOS but it only works if you grab the very left edge of the screen. If I’m holding the phone in my right hand, I can’t reach my thumb that far without nearly dropping the phone. My v20 screen is the same width, but I can easy reach the back button with my thumb.

I think this one is going back tomorrow, and I’ll wait for a pixel 6 pro. Too bad I got excited and when balls deep on accessories already. I was really excited for a MagSafe car mount.
 
So I've been swapping SIM's between my Pixel 5a and iPhone 12 Pro Max, last couple weeks. But one major reason why I'm sticking with Pixel's is the camera. The 12 Pro Max camera is just garbage for Portrait shots or photos at night, like really bad. My Brother has a 12 Pro and I had him take some pics too, and same thing lots of light bleed, photos look washed out and blurry almost. Where the Pixel 5a took Portrait shots that looked AMAZING at night, very clear and detailed, not blurry at all, crisp and sharp pics.

No joking, the 12 PM seems like a camera from 2015 or so, and the 5a camera a current 2021 flagship type camera almost.

And then the display, I'm actually shocked how good this Pixel 5a screen is, it gets very bright outdoors, but even better the blacks and vibrant colors looks very good, where the 12 PM looks a bit washed out, and the screen is great, but just doesn't seem amazing great, if that makes any sense.

Thing is, I do love the build quality on this iPhone 12 Pro Max, so nice and high end, and the UI is very fluid and super smooth, and apps with dark mode on are just fantastic on this phone. But the camera blows, and iOS is still a bit dated and wonky feeling to me.
 
Most of you know me as an anti iPhone guy, or mostly anti iOS, which I am. But, why is my SIM card back in my 12 Pro Max for a week now?

My other phones I have are the Pixel 4 XL and Pixel 5a, which I just gave the 5a to my Wife, she previously has the Pixel 2 XL, she really likes the 5a, mainly the battery life and brighter screen.

Anyways, there something about this iPhone 12 Pro Max, that keeps drawing me in;

- High end build quality, feels so nice, and the FLAT screen and squared edges just look great.

- With dark mode on, and apps set to Nighttime or AMOLED Black settings, it completely hides the notch, and makes the phone screen look like it goes edge to edge. Plus just in general the dark mode is black, unlike Android's dark grey, and just looks beautiful.

- Apps like Twitter and Reddit just seems more polished or better on iOS, and again with dark mode enabled look amazing. I like how apps seem to have a few additional settings options, where in Android they don't, specifically font size can be adjusted per app.

- Safari with the Dark Reader extension set to black again hides the notch, and makes web pages look super cool, plus I just find Safari set to 125% font easier to see and looks so clear. This is a big deal to me, Safari with Dark Reader and the browser set to 125% is PERFECT. The browsers on Android I use, Brave or Chrome always look too small or harder to read even with the font increased to 200% in settings, it doesn't seem to always change it on most sites. Not sure why, but I find Safari the most comfortable and easy on the eyes browser to use. Plus with AdGuard Pro ZERO ads.


But I far prefer how Android UI operates, to me it's a better OS and design. Themes are nice, but not critical. The back gesture is so much better on Android, going from the right side of the screen, swiping left goes back = genius on Android. AoD ( Always on Display ) holy cow this is a big deal, come on Apple. Notifications LOL no comparison, Android destroys iOS on this, plus neat things like Smart Reply are helpful. Or Google's Screen Call to take and handle phone calls for you is amazing. Voice to text on Android is darn near perfect on the Pixel's, whereas voice-to-text on the iPhone blows, and is terrible. Google Assistant compared to Siri LOL HA no contest, Siri is useless and I have not used once in 10 months, whereas saying "hey Google" to ask anything quickly about the weather or sports score, or make a phone call and have the Pixel AI schedule an appointment for me without me talking.

Man I'm torn LOL. I love the build quality and beautiful design of the iPhone, but stock Andorid is just superior in so many ways.

Camera's is another one. Both my Pixel 4 XL and 5a take far better still shots comapred to my 12PM, Portrait shots on my Pixel's are look years ahead better than the iPhone's. My iPhone 12 Pro Max camera seems like some old budget phone camera from 2015 with it's washed out blurry Portrait shots. Where the Pixel's are sharp, clear, and colorful.
 
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I'm kinda curious about some of your points (and I like iOS overall too even though I prefer Android).

For dark mode, most apps have the ability to set true AMOLED black if you wish but the default is usually a slight grey because even the iPhone AMOLED screen (same with Samsung) smears slightly with pure blacks on grey and low brightness. But not everyone is bother by that I guess (I find it hideous). It's funny because Android apps used to go for the true black since they had AMOLED earlier and its evolved to the slight grey.

No comments on Twitter, but 3rd party Android Reddit apps blow all iOS Reddit apps and the official apps out of the water. I ended up with Apollo on iOS but it's not nearly as good as Boost or Sync.

As for web browsers, you really have to try the Samsung Internet Browser. It's easily Samsung best piece of software and I use it even on my Pixel. You'll find it will do reader, dark mode, and ad blocking effectively.
 
I'm kinda curious about some of your points (and I like iOS overall too even though I prefer Android).

For dark mode, most apps have the ability to set true AMOLED black if you wish but the default is usually a slight grey because even the iPhone AMOLED screen (same with Samsung) smears slightly with pure blacks on grey and low brightness. But not everyone is bother by that I guess (I find it hideous). It's funny because Android apps used to go for the true black since they had AMOLED earlier and its evolved to the slight grey.

No comments on Twitter, but 3rd party Android Reddit apps blow all iOS Reddit apps and the official apps out of the water. I ended up with Apollo on iOS but it's not nearly as good as Boost or Sync.

As for web browsers, you really have to try the Samsung Internet Browser. It's easily Samsung best piece of software and I use it even on my Pixel. You'll find it will do reader, dark mode, and ad blocking effectively.

Thank for the reply. For the Samsung Browser, which one on the Google Play Store? The beta or regular? And which ad blocker do you use with it?
 
Both are fine but I've been using the Beta since it gets new features sooner. I switched straight to the Beta back when they implemented Android password autofill and it arrived in the beta first and let me switch away from Chrome.

For the adblocker, I used AdGuard because it worked just fine for me on my iPhone 11 so I figured it should be fine on Android too and it was. But I've since switched to using Blokada for system-wide adblocking.
 
My simple iPhone homescreen
 

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https://www.xda-developers.com/apple-iphone-13-pro-vs-google-pixel-5-camera-shootout-comparison/

I've said this myself. My iPhone 12 Pro Max takes kinda poor mediocre photos, and my Pixel 5a takes fantastic pics.

To me the Pixel 5a vs. 12 Pro Max photography is no comparison. The Pixel is the clear winner, head and shoulders better.
But that's a 13 Pro camera analysis, and there the Pixel 5 only really seems to fare well in daylight shots. And don't forget: the iPhone 13 family has "photographic styles" that let you bake a preferred tone into every photo. If you think the standard shots are too vivid, you can adjust for that without having to edit every photo.

I have a 13 Pro myself, and while I haven't taken many photos yet it's definitely a strong all-rounder. That wide aperture on the main camera is great for both bokeh and for taking photos the way people often do (that is, in less-than-perfect lighting). I'm curious to see how the Pixel 6 line fares.
 
I care about video more so than photos. We live in the era of tiktok, snapchat, and YouTube. Video is where iPhones have traditionally dominated. Maybe pixel 6 will change that. We'll see.
 
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Just picked up an 13 pro max yesterday and am finding it a little underwhelming. I’m coming from a 5 year old V20, so was expecting a drastic difference. Yeah the hardware is 100x better, but it just seems to be more difficult to do basic things with. I haven’t even bothered to swap my SIM card yet.

The lack of a back button is probably my biggest gripe. I didn’t realize how much I relied on it. I know I can swipe right on iOS but it only works if you grab the very left edge of the screen. If I’m holding the phone in my right hand, I can’t reach my thumb that far without nearly dropping the phone. My v20 screen is the same width, but I can easy reach the back button with my thumb.

I think this one is going back tomorrow, and I’ll wait for a pixel 6 pro. Too bad I got excited and when balls deep on accessories already. I was really excited for a MagSafe car mount.
Pixel 6 is dud also. UI awesome. Screen horrible. How is it that phones have gotten worse in 5 years?
 
Now that I have both the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, I sold my iPhone 12 Pro Max to a great work friend.

I really liked the hardware of the 12 Pro Max, but iOS just sucks, I don't plan to get another iPhone for a long time, unless iOS 16 or 17 finally brings it out of the stone age.
 
Now that I have both the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, I sold my iPhone 12 Pro Max to a great work friend.

I really liked the hardware of the 12 Pro Max, but iOS just sucks, I don't plan to get another iPhone for a long time, unless iOS 16 or 17 finally brings it out of the stone age.
I do hope you're happy with your Pixel 6, but I have to admit... I'm half-expecting to see posts like "I tried the iPhone 13 Pro and I'm tempted" or "diehard Pixel 6 user goes iPhone 14 Pro Max." You're an enthusiast who switches phones just to see what the other side is like, and I wouldn't be surprised if frustration with the Pixel 6 or next year's iPhone redesign tip the balance.
 
While I do like the new direction for the Pixels, I think I want to get in with the next generation Tensor on the Pixel 7 or 8. ARM is shifting to a new architecture while Exynos will start featuring AMD RDNA GPUs instead of Mali. It might be something incredible, pulling closer (but definitely not exceeding) to Apple than ever before.

I've settled for a Note10+ to tide me over until then. At least it has face unlock lol.
 
Only way I come back to an iPhone is more iOS releases then the actual new iPhone 14 or 15 phone.

The hardware, design, and build quality are fantastic from Apple. It's iOS I think still needs a massive overhaul with major updating to get me back.
 
You can't go from praising a phone to seriously condemning it and still maintain credibility. Sorry I wasted my time reading this thread.
 
You can't go from praising a phone to seriously condemning it and still maintain credibility. Sorry I wasted my time reading this thread.

If you can separate the OS from the phone, sure he can. I don't think he's ever been inconsistent in saying that he likes the physical iPhone hardware...he just doesn't like iOS.
 
If you can separate the OS from the phone, sure he can. I don't think he's ever been inconsistent in saying that he likes the physical iPhone hardware...he just doesn't like iOS.

Exactly.

I do appreciate and give praise to Apple for the hardware they design. Super high quality design and build, the best in the smartphone world.

It's just iOS I think still needs some revamping and revisions. In my opinion as I've stated in this thread.
 
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